SAP’s Steve Mann: How to Get Started in Social Media

Steve Mann is creating and implementing a social media strategy for B2B software giant SAP. He agreed to talk to ITSMA about how B2B marketers should approach getting started in social media. With his personal interest in science and sociology, Steve has some insightful views on the human side of implementing a social media strategy. To learn more about Steve and his opinions on social media, visit his blog at http://ablebrains.typepad.com.

ITSMA: Steve, what do you think should be driving B2B companies strategies in social media today?

Steve Mann: The dynamics of most markets have changed dramatically over the last few years. We have gone from being a supplier-centric economy where the supplier is in control to a buyer-centric economy where the buyer is in control. And these buyers are demanding transparency from their suppliers.

One of the best ways to drive that transparency is with social media. It has become a conversational economy where customers expect to be able to talk to suppliers and they are really turned off when suppliers talk at them. Social media is what enables that conversation between the suppliers and buyers.

ITSMA: There are so many different things that marketers could be doing with social media today. What’s the first thing they should do to get started?

Mann: It’s been our experience that there are many things happening in companies around social media which organizations don’t even know about. So, one of the first places to start is actually to take an audit of what’s happening in your organization.

Through our audit at SAP, we found that there are a number of grassroots initiatives around social media that we are really happy that we know about, for two reasons: number one, we can take advantage of synergies in those efforts, and number two, we can use the enthusiasm and the passion around these grassroots initiatives to drive an overall social media strategy.

So, for example, SAP has an internal social networking project that launched a couple of months ago called Harmony, which has over 5,000 SAP employees involved.

And another good opportunity is our SAP Developer Network and Business Process Expert community platforms, which, combined, have over 1 million community members already.

ITSMA: What prerequisites do you need to have internally in terms of social media before going externally?

Mann: Number one, do you have a culture where you allow experimentation and have a high tolerance for failure? Frankly, failure is big part of social media and social networking initiatives because we are still so early in the evolution of strategies and technologies.

For example, if you are a very strong command-and-control type of organization, it may be much more difficult for you to implement either an internal or external social media strategy. It’s difficult to maintain that traditional sense of control in an organization that truly implements a 360-degree social media strategy for both internal collaboration as well as for external collaboration with the market.

Second, do you also have tolerance for negative commentary about your organization in the market? If not, you should stay away from social media because customers will see through any efforts to control them or their messages.

The third assessment factor is to discover the real pain points that can be addressed with a social media strategy. Is it my communication strategy? Do I need to be closer to the market? Is it around co-innovation? Am I not being innovative enough in my products and services, or is there not enough uptake of my products and services, and if so, why?

ITSMA: How do you know whether your existing customer service infrastructure is ready to handle all the communications that occur in social media-such as a customer posting a complaint on a blog, for example?

Mann: The first issue is don’t do social media if you are not willing to hear negative things about your company. It’s a conversation, and in any conversation there are positives and negatives and you have to take the good with the bad.

Second, when an individual gives feedback to a company-no matter whether that feedback is negative or positive-that individual deserves to be engaged with. So the people, the processes, and the tools need to be in place to engage with that individual and not only say, “Hey, we heard you,” but also “Here is what we are going to do about it.”

It’s critical that organizations realize that social media drive a greater degree of customer intimacy than ever before. You are much closer to your customers and they are much closer to you, which is a good thing and a bad thing. It’s a bad thing in that if you don’t manage it well, it can hurt your brand. It’s a great thing in that customer intimacy promotes greater customer loyalty; customer loyalty promotes more repeat business, which in turn promotes greater satisfaction with the brand.

To read the full interview with Steve Mann, go to 18’s blog at http://chriskoch.wordpress.com.

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